On Wednesday, the Boston School Committee chose its next superintendent of schools: Brenda Cassellius, the former Minnesota commissioner of education.
Joining Boston Public Radio to share his analysis was Paul Reville. Reville is the former state Secretary of Education and a professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where he also runs the Education Redesign Lab.
Reville said that while he disagreed with some aspects of the superintendent search — including publicly releasing the names of finalists, which he believes discourages many qualified applicants from applying — he approved of the resulting pick.
"I have not been bashful about criticizing the former process or this process when I thought it was falling short in certain ways," Reville said. "I'm a staunch critic of the open meeting law application to getting a good pool of candidates here, because it doesn't give anonymity to sitting superintendents."
"All that said, I think the mayor and the school committee deserve strong credit for picking, I think, somebody who has got outstanding potential as the next leader of Boston Public Schools," Reville continued.
Reville cited Cassellius' record as a leader in Memphis and Minnesota.
"If you look at her record, for example, when she was in Memphis, [there were] outstanding improvements in middle school scores in reading and math. She had the highest scores ever registered in Minnesota under her leadership," Reville said.
"She has a strong record of boosting student achievement," he continued.
